Makoto Shinkai is an anime auteur that has been around since at least the early 2000s. He has steadily worked on films which contain themes of loneliness, long-distance relationships, and fate, but this is his first breakout hit.

Synopsis: Mitsuha Miyamizu lives in a rural area and longs to live in Tokyo while Taki Tachibana lives a busy life in Tokyo, balancing a part-time job and studying architecture. Their lives intersect when the first visible comet for a thousand years approaches Japan and they begin to switch bodies. Despite the initial fun and confusion of body-swapping, a dark journey lies ahead.